Support was highest among Democrats -- 68 percent of whom favored
legalization -- compared to 42 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of
independents. An age gap was also in evidence, with 61 percent of voters
under 30 supporting legal marijuana use, compared to 48 percent of
those over 65.

A CBS poll released last week
found less than a majority in support, with 47 percent saying marijuana
should be legalized. That survey also reflected a shift, however,
marking the first time that support for legalization outstripped
opposition.

The difference in results could be partially because PPP's surveys
use automated phone calls, while many other polls use live interviewers.
An MPP press release suggested that voters might be uncomfortable telling an interviewer they support legalization....

PPP found that half of voters thought marijuana would be legalized
nationally within the next 10 years, while 37 percent predicted it would
remain illegal.The poll surveyed 1,325 registered voters using automated phone calls between Nov. 30 and Dec. 2.

Comments

This is not terribly surprising considering how much the issue has been in the news. It might at this time be worth knowing whether or not there any instances in our history where a law has been passed through Congress making certain conduct a violation of the criminal law nationally and that conduct was subsequently legalized by a subsequent Congress? Alcohol prohibition does not count - that was a Constitutional amendment both times. The anti-prohibition lobby may continue to win victories in some of the several states as time marches on, however, I would think changing the federal law is virtually unfathomable.

Posted by: C | Dec 5, 2012 10:33:21 AM

Time to end of the madness of marijuana being listed as a Schedule I controlled substance.

Posted by: Anthony Perine | Dec 5, 2012 11:33:15 AM

As I documented on another thread, this poll is a total outlier, if not an outliar. Its results are much more favorable to doperism than any other poll. Indeed they significantly exceed even the results in Washington and Colorado referenda (not to mention Oregon, where legalization lost by 10 points a month ago, and California, where it was rejected in Prop 19).

Not one of the other seven recent polls shows legalization even to have a majority, and five of them show legalization losing to continued prohibition, by margins of from 22 percent (AP/NBC, 4/2010) to 2 percent (ABC/Washington Post, 11/2012 (post-election)).

http://www.pollingreport.com/drugs.htm

When seven other polls taken by neutral organizaions are so wildly at odds with one taken by an admitted Democrat-leaning outfit, who would a fair-minded observer believe?

Hint #1: A fair-minded observer might be inclined to credit those who at least disclose the existence of the seven other polls, rather than conveniently keep them out of sight.

Hint #2: The idea that legalization actually has a 19 point lead nationwide, while it lost (by secret ballot) by 10 points in blue-state Oregon, is somewhere beyond preposterous.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Dec 5, 2012 11:40:32 AM

"this poll"

Bill Otis is off base.

A series of polls are referenced in this post, not a single poll as he implies.

Anyway, WTF is wrong with Bill Otis? Doesn't he have something better to do with his life than trying to control what other people smoke?

He seems like a typical Republican. If he encounters facts he doesn't like, he just makes crap up.

Posted by: Sparky | Dec 5, 2012 4:28:28 PM

Sparky --

"A series of polls are referenced in this post, not a single poll as he implies."

Nonsense. It is only the single poll -- the PPP poll -- that finds legalization to have majority support. No other poll does, although there are plenty of them. And it is the PPP poll alone that is the raison d'etre of both the news story and Doug's entry.

"Anyway, WTF is wrong with Bill Otis? Doesn't he have something better to do with his life than trying to control what other people smoke?"

WTF is wrong with Sparky? Doesn't he have something better to do with his life than trying to facilitate people's "opportunity" to damage their lungs so they can get stoned? BTW, genius, it's not me but a federal statute, passed by a heavily Democratic Congress, that controls what people smoke.

"He seems like a typical Republican. If he encounters facts he doesn't like, he just makes crap up."

You seem like a typical Democrat. Confronted with seven polls, all significantly contradicting the PPP poll, you ignore the evidence and lauch an irrelevant ad hominem attack on the messenger.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Dec 5, 2012 11:27:49 PM

Doesn't he have something better to do with his life than trying to control what other people smoke?